[R-390] I'd kind of like to have one of these but...

[2002tii]

Les wrote (regarding the Collins 651S-1):

>Even if you had a like new, mint one you would be disappointed.

Amen to that.  I had a 651S-1B very briefly, and was horrified by how 
bad it was in a great number of areas.  Even though the designers 
limited the VFO to 100 Hz steps to minimize synthesizer artifacts 
(much too coarse for decent SSB reception, BTW, although if you had 
the variable VFO as I did you could al least get things sounding 
right), the behavior of the synthesizer was appalling as you tuned up 
and down.  The internal frequency reference drifted like a rudderless 
dinghy with the centerboard up, the image and IF rejection were 30 dB 
worse than a 390, and the front end was noisy and easily 
overloaded.  The many spurs from the synthesizer made a WJ-8711A look 
good.  Mine had the VLF option, which was utterly useless due to 
noise and insensitivity.  And there was only one main tuning speed -- 
way too fast.

That's what I can think of off the top of my head.  If I looked at my 
notes, there's probably about that much again that I found unacceptable.

Best regards,

Don


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